COMPETING – Competence Based Education and Training for Inland Navigation

In this project, for the first time, all key players cooperated at the European level to develop a widely recognized and modern European curriculum for inland waterway transport. We worked together with education and training institutions in this field, social partners representing the industry, competent authorities, and umbrella organizations.

This project had the ultimate goal of implementing EU legislation through a comparable system for the recognition of educational programs and qualified crews who would hold a Union certificate.

COMPETING paved the way for the introduction of future skills-based education and training for inland waterway crew members throughout the European Union. Future certificates were intended to be recognized across Europe. Sustainable solutions, automation, digitization, and communication at the European level were integrated into the education and training programs. The primary objective of the project was to increase labour mobility in the inland waterway transport sector.

The COMPETING consortium consisted of various stakeholders. First, inland navigation education and training institutions, which needed to modify their course programs to align with competence-based education and training recognized at the European level. Second, social partners (employers and unions) representing the industry and crew members and lastly, competent authorities, umbrella organizations, and members of the Advisory Committee.

CERONAV coordinated work package 3, where the following activities were carried out, according to the work plan:

• collected the most relevant results from completed or ongoing European projects related to didactic materials for the professional training of inland navigation personnel.
• developed a framework structure for educational programs and course textbooks.
• developed 14 course manuals, 7 for the educational program aimed at operational-level staff and 7 for the managerial-level staff, based on the requirements of the CESNI Competence Standards.
• developed a framework structure for the European Training Record Book. The final version of this document was sent to CESNI to be included in the work plan as an optional standard for inland waterway transport.

The final versions of ETRB-ML and ETRB-OL were sent to CESNI.

• organized online training sessions for trainers to teach techniques based on course manuals and training modules in e-learning format.

The first Train the Trainer session took place in April 2021—Communication at the Managerial Level. CERONAV, through its project experts, organized and coordinated the 5-day session, which was held both offline and online.

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